The Wonders Of Salt Scrubbed Bars
by Silver.Witchy.Things
Summary: What if that bit of life force Winifred consumed protected her from the rising sun? And the "hallowed ground" only weakened her? What will Max, Dani, Allison, and yes, even Binx, do with an imprisoned witch? Multi chapter, better than the summary I promise. Rated T now, may change in future.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Summary: What if that bit of life force Winifred consumed protected her from the rising sun? And the "hallowed ground" only weakened her? What will Max, Dani, Allison, and yes, even Binx, do with an imprisoned witch?

A/N: Hello! Welcome to my second Hocus Pocus fic! This one will be multi-chapter. I'm not quite sure how long yet though. It was inspired by a fic called The Prisoner by Masquerading As Quality and a hilarious movie called Ruthless People which stars our very own Winnie, Bette Midler.

A/N: Sorry for all the undoubtedly grammatical errors. I haven't slept in seventeen hours so… Apologies.

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So this is how he died.

Getting his life sucked out of him by a 17th century witch. And all because he was a virgin.

He tried to pry her claws off of his sweater. But the witch in front of him was holding him with a vice grip. When just like a miracle, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The sun.

It rose out of the horizon with such brightness, he almost didn't notice the ground beneath Winifred start smoking.

To his shock she dropped him and dashed away, for what, he didn't know, but the moment he touched the ground, he ran to where Dani was.

"Max!" He enveloped her in a hug, at the same time he tried to get her and Allison away. He shielded them with his arms and stayed. A beat passed and Allison tugged on his arm, "Max, look!" She pointed to the sky and he followed her finger to the two Sandersons in the sky. He watched as Sarah exploded into a cloud of purple dust, followed by Mary.

He cheered. He turned to Allison and Billy and cheered with them as well. "So long Sandersons!"

Allison smiled and pulled him in for a sudden kiss. Everything went blank in his mind as he reciprocated. He pulled away and rubbed the back of his neck, "What was that for?"

Allison laughed and said, "Celebration."

"Max."

Max turned to Dani and beamed. She was safe. Before she could protest he picked her and spun her around in a big bear hug.

"Max!" Dani cried and hit his arm.

He quickly set her down, "What was that for?!"

Dani stomped her foot and took a deep breath, "I didn't see Winifred turn to dust anywhere." She looked at him pointedly and he finally got what she meant. Max realized something, "Billy," he said slowly, "why are you still awake?"

Billy stopped smiling, and Binx's voice rang out, "Over here!"

Max felt his stomach sink, he ran with the others to where he heard Binx. When they arrived, he nearly screamed.

There, on a long stone grave lay an unconscious Winifred Sanderson. Binx sat on a gravestone nearby.

Dani heaved a sigh of relief, "Binx! You're alive! But...how is _she_ still alive?"

Binx hung his head, "As the sun rose higher the demon lost all energy. That is why she is not awake, but how she is alive? I do not know. My only guess she consumed enough of Max's life force to live."

Billy bit out, "The bitch. Can't even die to free the rest of us." Allison put a hand on his shoulder, "So what do we do? We can't just leave her here. She'll cause chaos."

Max thought for a moment, "Maybe we can roll her onto the ground. That'll either kill her or do something." He looked to Binx, "You've been waiting for three hundred years to get revenge."

The cat looked at the witch and nodded, Max kneeled down at the side of the stone.

He was just about to push the woman when Dani shouted, "No!"

The three turned and stared at her, "What?"

Dani floundered under the sudden attention, "If we do this, we won't be better than her. We can't kill her."

Billy was the first to speak, "Do you know the magnitude of what this hellspawn has done? Our conscience would still be clean if we did this."

"But isn't there a way to punish her without killing her?"

Max shook his head, "Dani-"

"We could imprison her!"

He stopped short, "What?"

Dani knew it was the only chance she had; she fiddled with her scarf, "Put her in a circle of salt. Or something like that."

Allison chewed her lip, "She's right, Max. Maybe even then we could get her to reverse Binx's curse, and put Billy back to rest."

Max looked to Billy then to Binx, "I think it's up to you two. She killed you, and she cursed you."

Billy and Thackery both shared a look and contemplated it. Billy spoke, "Fine. As long as she's locked up good."

Max nodded, "Binx?"

Binx looked to Dani, and then to the witch still lying comatose, "Alright. For Dani's sake."

Dani smiled, "Thank you Binx."

Billy pinched his brow in thought, "But where are you going to keep her?"

Dani shuffled, "We can't take her home, mom and dad would notice a person in the basement. What about the sisters' house?"

Max laughed out right, "With all those ingredients, and her spellbook? Yeah right."

Binx licked his paw, "I might have an idea. In the crypt there are cells. Easily accessible, and not under the graveyard."

"But how are we going to keep her in there? We can't put a circle of salt inside the cell," said Allison.

Max thought for moment and grinned, "No, but we can coat the bars and walls in salt."

"And how are we going to do that?"

Dani piped up, "Oh I know! A salt and water mixture! Even put a line of salt around the edges just to make sure."

"Okay, that actually sounds pretty solid," Max agreed, " Allison why don't you grab a spray bottle, salt, and meet us back in the crypt. We'll mark the right entrance for you."

Allison nodded, "Sure. Be careful you all. She may wake up soon. You better hurry." She hugged Max and Dani before taking off.

Max turned to Billy, "Let's see, how we should do this? I take her feet and you take her arms? Binx leads the way?"

Billy huffed, "It's alright I got her." He bent down and prepared to pick her up before Dani stopped them.

"Wait!" She took of her scarf and tied the witch's hands behind her back. She looked up, "Safety precaution."

Billy lifted Winifred and the three of them followed Thackery to a low entrance in the ground just on the edge of the graveyard. They walked down a few tunnels before coming upon a row of cells. Each one had iron barred walls. The cells were all dark and musty with centuries of neglect. Billy set Winifred down in the middle of one of them and shut the door, "Now all we have to do is wait for Allison."

Dani squinted at Winifred, "She's been taking a long nap."

"Lucky us too. Let's hope she stays like that," Max replied.

A few minutes passed and just as they were getting worried they heard a feminine voice calling out for them.

"Over here!" Shouted Dani. Allison came into view with a bag of salt containers, a spray bottle, washcloths, and a bucket of water.

She set the stuff down, "I figured washing the walls with salt water wouldn't hurt."

Binx sniffed the items, "Well, you better hurry, I don't know how much time we have left." The two teens, Dani, and Billy got to work. They were laying the last line of salt when heard stirring. Binx alerted them, "She's waking up!"

They finished the line and closed the door behind them.

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Hope you liked it! Polite criticism encouraged, and please please review! Second chapter coming up soon!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Hello! This is the second chapter, please review!

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They watched as Winifred opened one eye and then the other, she raised her head and blearily took in her surroundings, "What in God's body is this?" The red haired witch wriggled her hands out of their binding and turned around, that's when she landed on the crew outside the cell.

"You," she growled. She rose unsteadily and made her way to the bars. She was about to grasp one, but she pulled her hand away as if it had been burned. "Salt. How clever," she ground out.

Dani gulped and watched as Winifred studied them, "So… I survived then. I'm assuming my sisters did not."

Dani spoke, "No. They didn't."

Winifred glared at the girl, "What a pleasure to see that thou art still alive." Her eyes trained on Max, "Ha! Even the boy still lives." She took in the other three people, and cackled.

"So I am prisoner. What tis thy plan? Starve me? Torture? Do tell me the delightful details."

Max cleared his throat, "Prisoner. That's it."

Allison spoke, "Max, I should tell you, she did something."

Max turned to her, "What? I thought everything was okay."

She shook her head and looked to Winifred, "None of the parents are home. Or a good portion of the adults."

Max pushed the fear in the pit of his stomach down and walked up to the bars of the cell, "What did you do?"

"The party was a marvelous one. I simply did not want it to end for them." She examined her nails. "So I let them dance forever. Until they drop dead at least," she said airily.

"Lift it."

"Or what?" She challenged.

Max thought, "Or…" an idea struck him, "or we'll destroy your book."

That got her attention. Winifred snapped her head up and a look of hatred filled her eyes. "Tis impossible."

"Oh it may be impossible to destroy it, but trust me, there's a lot of other things we can do to it."

If it were impossible to die from a glare, they'd all be six feet under. Winifred ground her teeth, but relented and snapped her fingers. "There. The enchantment is off."

The kids seemed to breathe easier after that.

Binx glared at the witch; he hopped up onto Max's shoulder so he could be level with her. "I think we should set some rules."

The witch looked him in the eye, "And those would be?"

"No harm is to come to any of us. Especially Dani or any other child. You are not to trick or do anything of the like."

"And what rules are set for my benefit?"

"No harm is to come to you."

Dani faced Max, "We should go soon."

Allison buried her face in her hands, "I'm so dead. My parents are going to be livid. She's right, we should be going."

Max eyed Winifred, who was still glaring, "Yeah we should. But we can't leave her alone. We have to keep an eye on her."

Winifred groaned, "So I am to be watched constantly as well? Like an infant?"

"After what happened these last hours? We'd be stupid not to."

"And I was just so giddy with hope." Max rolled his eyes and saw Billy sit down by the opposite wall, "I've got her for ya." Binx padded over to where Billy sat and stopped at his feet, "I shall keep watch as well. Go ahead you three, go to your families. "

"Because poor little Binx cannot go to his," quipped Winifred, prompting a low growl from the cat.

Shooting a glance to the witch, Max replied, "See ya Binx. We'll bring back some food." With that, Max, Dani, and Allison found their way back to the surface.

"I better be going. My mom and dad are going to kill me," Allison laughed, "Bye Max, bye Dani." She gave the two quick hugs and started to walk away when Max stopped her.

"Dani," she stopped and looked back at him, "What time do you wanna meet back here?"

She thought for a moment, "Three maybe? We don't have school, and we did stay up the whole night, so I might sleep for a bit."

"Good idea."

She waved and walked off. Max glanced at Dani. He had come so close to losing her, he was unsure of all of this. From the look in her eyes, she was having similar thoughts. She looked up to him, eyes big and blue. "Max? Did I do something totally stupid?"

Did they? What were they expecting? For an -actual- soulless witch to be compliant? This could turn out to be very bad. They were all fooling themselves if they thought Winifred didn't have other tricks up her sleeves. So in truth, he had no idea. He sighed, "No clue. It was brave that's for sure."

Dani said nothing and just nodded. After a pause she took his hand and they walked home together.

Binx was going to claw her eyes out.

Or at least that what Billy was certain of. For the past hour-and-a-half Winifred had been whistling a particularly high pitched tune. For himself it was downright annoying, and he assumed it was worse for the feline. But that's what she wanted isn't it? If she couldn't harm, she'd annoy. She had to have power in some way or another. Detestable harlot.

Binx growled and put his paws over his ears when the witch hit a surprising high note for whistling.

"Dammit, would you shut your trap?" Billy snapped.

Winifred paused, sneered, and continued on even louder.

"Do you strive to annoy?"

She grinned, "I strive to cause any misfortune."

Billy huffed and stroked Binx with awkward fingers, trying to soothe the used-to-be boy. Winifred apparently found boredom once again and took to inspecting the cell. Squinting, she took it in.

"Couldn't have bothered to clean the filthy thing out could thee?"

Binx hissed, "You deserve less."

She rolled her eyes and sat back down. Her eyes settled on Billy, studying him. Billy shifted under her gaze, hating having one of hell's own furies evaluating him so. The bitch. So he closed his eyes. If he couldn't see her, and she wasn't making any noise, he could almost pretend she wasn't there anymore. It was almost like death again. Til it was disrupted.

"So how did the afterlife treat thee, Billy? Absolutely rotten? I sure do hope."

He tried to ignore her.

"Miss anything about life that you have been reunited with?"

He tried.

"Miss your head? I know thou was without that a few times."

He really did.

"Miss Sarah?"

His eyes shot open and he found Winifred staring at him, not glaring, but staring at him with a hint of accusation. So very like her to push the right buttons. He almost opened his mouth to spew hate at her, but did his best to bite back the insult. He would not give her the satisfaction. No matter how tempting it was.

Billy rested his head against the wall and tapped his fingers against his side, "How did you guess?" Winifred scowled and huffed; turned towards the wall to avoid any further discussion. Good. They had an understanding.

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A/N: SOO Sorry! It's been what, about six months since an update? Apologies! I had lost inspiration for a long time, and found it hard to get back into this story. And I know the ending is a little rushed and abrupt, but I really just wanted to update. Please review!


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